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taxed William with having lain inactive at Gramont with an army of one hundred thousand men, while Luxembourg was posted at Courtray with half that number. They said, if he had found the French lines too strong to be forced, he might have passed the Scheldt higher up, and not only laid the enemy's conquests under contribution, but even marched into the bowels of France; and they complained that Furnes and Dixmuyde were not worth the sums expended in maintaining their garrisons. On the twentysixth day of September king William left the army under the command of the elector of Bavaria, and repaired to his house at Leo: in two days after his departure the camp at Gramont was broke up; the infantry marched to Marienkerke, and the horse to Caure. On the sixteenth day of October, the king receiving intelligence, that Boufflers had invested Charleroy, and Luxembourg taken post in the neighbourhood of Condé, ordered the troops to be instantly reassembled between the village of Ixells and Halle, with design to raise the siege, and repaired to Brussels, where he held a council of war, in which the proper measures were concerted. He then returned to Holland, leaving the command with the elector of Bavaria, who forthwith began his march for Charleroy. At his approach Boufflers abandoned the siege, and moved towards Philipville. The elector having reinforced the place and thrown supplies into Aeth, distributed his forces into winterquarters. Luxembourg, who had cantoned his army between Condé, Leuze, and Tournay, returned to Paris, leaving Boufflers to command in his absence.

Then

§ XXXV. The allies had been unsuccessful in Flanders, and they were not fortunate in Germany. The landgrave of Hesse Cassel undertook the siege of Eberemburg, which, however, he was obliged to abandon. The duke de Lorges, who commanded the French forces on the Rhine, surprised, defeated and took the duke of Wirtemberg, who had posted himself with four thousand horse near Eidelsheim, to check the progress of the enemy. Count Tallard having invested Rhinefeld, the landgrave marched to its relief with such expedition, that the French were obliged to desist and retreat with considerable damage. The elector of Saxony had engaged to bring an army into

the field; but he complained that the emperor left the burden of the war with France upon the princes, and converted his chief power and attention to the campaign in Hungary. A jealousy and misunderstanding ensued: Schoening, the Saxon general, in his way to the hot baths at Dablitz in Bohemia, was seized by the emperor's order, on suspicion of having maintained a private correspondence with the enemy, and very warm expostulations on this subject passed between the courts of Vieana and Dresden. Schoening was detained two years in custody; and at length released, on condition that he should never be employed again in the empire. The war in Hungary produced no event of importance. The ministry of the Ottoman Porte was distracted by factions, and the seraglio threatened with tumults. The people tired of maintaining an unsuccessful war: the visir was deposed; and in the midst of this confusion, the garrison of great Waradin, which had been blocked up by the Imperialists during the whole winter, surrendered on capitulation. Lord Paget, the English ambassador at Vienna, was sent to Constantinople, with powers to mediate a peace: but the terms offered by the emperor were rejected at the Porte: the Turkish army lay upon the defensive, and the season was spent in a fruitless negotiation.

§ XXXVI. The prospect of affairs in Piedmont was favourable for the allies; but the court of France had brought the pope to an accommodation, and began to tamper with the duke of Savoy. M. Chanlais was sent to Turin, with advantageous proposals, which, however, the duke would not accept, because he thought himself entitled to better terms, considering that the allied army in Piedmont amounted to fifty thousand effective men, while Catinat's forces were not sufficient to defend his conquests in that country. In the month of July the duke marched into Dauphiné, where he plundered a number of villages, and reduced the fortress of Guillestre; then passing the river Darance, he invested Ambrun, which, after a siege of nine days, surrendered on capitulation: he afterwards laid all the neighbouring towns under contribution. Here duke Schomberg, who commanded the auxiliaries in the English pay, published a declaration, in the name of king William, invi

ting the people to join his standard, assuring them that his master had no other design in ordering his troops to invade France, but that of restoring the noblesse to their ancient splendour, their parliaments to their former authority, and the people to their just privileges. He even offered his protection to the clergy, and promised to use his endeavours for reviving the edict of Nantes, which had been guaranteed by the kings of England. These offers, however, produced little effect; and the Germans ravaged the whole country, in revenge for the cruelties which the French had committed in the Palatinate. The allied army advanced from Ambrun to Gap, on the frontiers of Provence, and this place submitted without opposition. The inhabitants of Grenoble, the capital of Dauphiné, and even of Lyons, were overwhelmed with consternation; and a fairer opportunity of humbling France could never occur, as that part of the kingdom had been left almost quite defenceless; but this was fatally neglected, either from the spirit of dissension which began to prevail in the allied army, or from the indisposition of the duke of Savoy, who was seized with the smallpox in the midst of this expedition; or, lastly, from his want of sincerity, which was shrewdly suspected. He is said to have maintained a constant correspondence with the court of Versailles, in complaisance to which he retarded the operations of the confederates. Certain it is, he evacuated all his conquests, and about the middle of September quitted the French territories, after having pillaged and laid waste the country through which he had penetrated. In Catalonia the French attempted nothing of importance during this campaign, and the Spaniards were wholly inactive in that province.

§ XXXVII. The protestant interest in Germany acquired an accession of strength, by the creation of a ninth electorate in favour of Ernest Augustus, duke of Hanover. He had, by this time, renounced all his connexions with France, and engaged to enter heartily into the interest of the allies, in consideration of his obtaining the electoral dignity. King William exerted himself so vigorously in his behalf

k At this period queen Mary, understanding that the protestant Vaudois were destitute of ministers to preach or teach the gospel, established a fund from her own privy purse, to maintain ten preachers, and as many schoolmasters, in the valleys of Piedmont.

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at the court of Vienna, that the emperor agreed to the proposal, in case the consent of the other electors could be procured. This assent, however, was extorted by the importunities of the king of England, whom he durst not disoblige. Leopold was blindly bigoted to the religion of Rome, and consequently averse to a new creation, that would weaken the catholic interest in the electoral college. He, therefore, employed his emissaries to thwart the duke's measures. Some protestant princes opposed him from motives of jealousy, and the French king used all his artifice and influence, to prevent the elevation of the house of Hanover. When the duke had surmounted all this opposition, so far as to gain over a majority of the electors, new objections were started. The emperor suggested that another popish electorate should be created to balance the advantage which the Lutherans would reap from that of Hanover: and he proposed that Austria should be raised to the same dignity: but violent opposition was made to this expedient, which would have vested the emperor with a double vote in the electoral college. At length, after a tedious negotiation, the duke of Hanover, on the nineteenth day of December, was honoured with the investiture, as elector of Brunswick; created great marshal of the empire, and did homage to the emperor: nevertheless, he was not yet admitted into the college, because he had not been able to procure the unanimous consent of all the electors.'

1 In the beginning of September the shock of an earthquake was felt in London, and many other parts of England, as well as in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Violent agitations of the same kind had happened about two months before in Sicily and Malta: and the town of Port Royal in Jamaica was almost totally ruined by an earthquake: the place was so suddenly overflowed, that about fifteen hundred persons perished.

BOOK I.

CHAP. IV.

§ I. False information against the Earl of Marlborough, the Bishop of Rochester, and others. § II. Sources of national discontent. § III. Dissension between the Queen and the Princess Anne of Denmark. IV. The House of Lords vindicate their privileges in behalf of their imprisoned members. V. The Commons present addresses to the King and Queen. § VI. They acquit Admiral Russel, and resolve to advise his Majesty. § VII. They comply with all the demands of the ministry. VIII. The Lords present an address of advice to the King. IX. Dispute between the Lords and Commons concerning Admiral Russel. § X. The Commons address the King. They establish the land tax and other impositions. § XI. Burnet's pastoral letter burned by the hangman. § XII. Proceedings of the Lower House against the practice of kidnapping men for the service.

XIII. The two Houses address the King on the grievances of Ireland. § XIV. An account of the place bill, and that for triennial Parliaments. § XV. The Commons petition his Majesty that he would dissolve the East India Company. § XVI. Trial of Lord Mohun for murder. Alterations in the ministry. XVII. The King repairs to the continent, and assembles the confederate army in Flanders. XVIII. The French reduce Huy. § XIX. Luxembourg resolves to attack the Allies. § XX. Who are defeated at Landen. § XXI. Charleroy is besieged and taken by the enemy. § XXII. Campaign on the Rhine. The duke of Savoy is defeated by Catinat in the plain of Marsaglia. § XXIII. Transactions in Hungary and Catalonia. § XXIV. Naval affairs. § XXV. A fleet of merchant ships, under convoy of Sir George Rooke, attacked, and partly de

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